Mobile developers are the prize in the iPhone era

With the iPhone blazing a trail, every manufacturer, carrier and platform maker is looking to lure software programmers to their side. The pursuit recognizes the success of the iPhone and what it represents: that software is increasingly the name of the game and apps, be they web or native, can be a big differentiator and the key to creating some dynamic mobile experiences.

I chatted recently with Motorola and Verizon Wireless, who are both stepping up their efforts to court developers. Both have been active, but are now ramping up to get programmers and build up their respective offerings.

Motorola announced last week a new App Accelerator Program and MOTOVDEV Studio for Android, which it hopes will help fuel Android development in general and specifically Android development for Motorola phones. The program will help developers bring their apps to market faster while MOTODEV will provide better tools for app creation.

Verizon Wireless is holding its first Verizon Developer Community conference in San Jose tomorrow. The purpose is to build better relationships with devs and help them get apps running on Verizon phones.

“2008 was the year when smartphones clearly became consumer devices,” said Verizon’s John Harrobin, senior vice president of marketing and digital medias. “Apps are becoming more important for customers who want to do more with their phones. That philosophy benefits the whole category including Verizon and its customers.”

Motorola’s courtship of Android developers is even more integral to its future. The company has said Google’s Android OS is going to be the main platform for its mid-tier to high-end phones. There may still be a Windows Mobile phone in the mix but Motorola is for all intents and purposes pinning its hopes on Android.

Motorola plans to release 20-30 Android-based phones in the next 12 months, which will be huge for the platform and a key test for Motorola, which is relying the operating system like no other manufacturer. The first phones will be ready in Q3. If Android can be robust enough and fill a wide range of needs, Motorola could aspire to break out of its rut. If not, Motorola might be doomed.

I talked with Christy Wyatt, vice president of software platforms and ecosystems at Motorola who said Motorola has a big opportunity to bring the dynamism of Android to cheaper phones and non-smartphone form factors. Currently, Android devices are about $150 to $200 and are touch-screen iPhone competitors.

“We think this is a big opportunity to take the platform downstream,” Wyatt said. “It’s about how economical we can make the platform. And we don’t think the phone market homogenizes into one form factor.”

Wyatt is trying to secure developers by offering them deep integration into Motorola’s hardware. By opening up to programmers, Wyatt said Motorola can offer apps that boast of greater battery and network optimization, more robust multimedia performance and better messaging.

Wyatt believes the major smartphone operating systems, of which there are six, will eventually get whittled down to two or three. Android, she said naturally, will be one of them. Carriers and enterprise customers will eventually push to simplify and will demand fewer platforms, she said.

All of this brings us back to the importance of software and the importance of developers. “We believe in an experience driven market,” Wyatt said. “It has a lot to do with the ecosystem and the platform. It used to be 70 percent about the hardware (and 30 percent about software) but now it’s the opposite.”